it is avery charming, nice hotel at 20 kilometers of Playa del Carmen. The rooms are painted in white, very clean and the service is excellent. The food is very good unless the price can be a little expensive. You may have some surprise at the end as the bills are not signed and you receive everything at the check out. The put 15 percent tips on the bill and 25 percent for the room service if food is order in the rooms.

Beautiful, serene, immaculate inside and out, and world-class service from a staff of at least 1 to 1. A true diamond in the rough. Super food, restful and secluded beach, outstanding spa, daily yoga with different instructors. And, we felt quite safe at all times. Warning: there is no internet site that does this place justice. You must see and experience it yourself to appreciate.

Esencia was a great hotel and we had an amazing vacation. Having stayed in Playa del Carmen four times in the past my husband and I were looking to also spend some time in Tulum so the location was great. Esencia is about 15-20 minutes from downtown Playa del Carmen and about 30 minutes from Tulum. Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who does not have children, I definitely recommend renting a car if you are going to be there for more than 2-3 days. Navigating the area is really straightforward (there is one main road) and it is nice to be able to leave the resort and spend some time in downtown Playa.

Back to the hotel, the main house (which has 3 or 4 rooms) and one of the other houses (that holds 1-2 rooms) sits adjacent to the beach and then the other rooms go back from there into the jungle. That being said, all of the rooms are a very short walk to the beach (unlike a lot of the hotels where you need a golf cart to get to the beach). Our room (Las Terraces) was in the main house. It was beautiful, spacious and had two beautiful terraces with bench seating and chairs. The terrace facing the ocean is about 400 sf so pretty large. If you enjoy nesting in your hotel room, this is the best room I have seen. Big closet with tons of shelving space throughout the room. The air conditioning worked amazingly well, especially compared with other places we have stayed in Central and South America. The shower was great, tons of hot water and good pressure. Unfortunately no tub but you can't have it all. When we got to the room the bed was covered in rose petals and we were given a bottle of wine, beautiful. The rooms also come with new snorkels as well as beach bags and white flip flops to use during your stay which were nice touches.

Each morning they brought us tea/coffee and bread. The bread was fantastic. I loved our view but for the very picky, I will note the view of the ocean is somewhat obstructed by palm trees. For us, that didn't matter. There are two restaurants, one for breakfast and lunch and one for dinner. Overall we thought the food was very good. Many of the dishes were excellent (Lime soup, the ceviches, and the Shrimp Tamarin) and some could use a little work (chicken caesar, chilaquiles) but everything was good. There are 2 pools, one is heated (also the children's pool) and the other is not. There were a decent amount of families staying at the hotel and they spent the majority of the time by the pool. My husband and I chose to lay out at the beach where you are given your own small cabana. The guy who sets up your cabana is great, really nice and attentive. The beach was relatively uncrowded as it really only serves 3 hotels, very peaceful. The dinner restaurant was in the jungle, very pretty.

Some additional notes, the concierge's office provides you with games and DVDs which came in handy. Also there is yoga (at no cost) and a tea time each day. These were small pieces that made the vacation that much better.

I have only two points of constructive criticism: (1) the service in the restaurant was frequently very slow and often your food would come out slightly differently than what you ordered. For example, eggs usually took 35 minutes from ordering and your request for egg whites would be overlooked. It was never a huge inconvenience and everyone was very accommodating but it was definitely a consistent pattern. (2) the spa is beautiful but the area for pedicures needs some work. The chairs are slightly uncomfortable (think bar stools with a back) and your feet are placed in a very shallow dish of water so only your soles are submerged. The setup just feels a little thrown together for such a beautiful spa.

Overall it was a great experience and we were very sad to leave. We hope to return soon!

I see so many great reviews of Esencia and the hotel rarely receives average ones but Im sorry to say, 3.5/5 is probably all I can give. I would not say that it is a 5 star resort though. Thats not to say parts werent excellent. Highlights....

Service - 4.75 to 5. Exceptionally cordial, friendly, attentive. Definitely showcases what was best about our stay - the people. Every aspect from ALL the servers at both restaurants to pool to palapas. Simon and Alfonso (sorry, might be Alfredo too); Filipe I think as well. I know Im leaving people out but this is what makes your stay. Housekeeping, concierge, check in as well.

Food - 4.25 to 4.5. Absolutely NOT resort food. Being from California dining options are immense and we are often dissapointed at resorts. Not the case at Esencia. I ate dinner 8 nights and not a single repeated special was offered! The lunch menu is even better than the dinner. Ceviche and seafood were always super fresh and over the top. Plenty of traditional dishes that Ive never tried and was very pleased with. The only knock is the slight Americanization of some parts of the menu (but I understand). With the variety of options on the Yucatan, this should be a no-brainer. And the plaintains, though traditional and local, especially in the desserts always seemed tough like undercooked potato. All in all, kudos to the chef(s). The food was excellente.

Beach - 3.5. Although quite nice right in front of the resort, its a disaster the rest of the way. Too much washed up garbage on the beach just 200 yards away, and all along it. Abandonded resorts at each end of the beach; one very close. There are plenty of much nicer spots in Mexico. Could also be more consistent with bringing around a mid-day refresher/snack than doing it every other day

Room - 2.5 to 3. Too many small problems in too average of a room to give it more than this.
- fridge made a buzzing sound that escalated. Had to unplug it so it would stop waking me up all the time. Had it "fixed". Still did it
- the personal plunge pool malfunctioned - it worked our first two nights. Then we just thought when we asked to have it turned on, it was just taking a while and ignored it for two days. Actually, it wasnt working after the first two days but we just didnt realize it. Then two more days of it not working. At which point the stay was over.
- a nice touch to have a DVD to watch movies but you need o turn the volume all the way up to hear it - and all that you can hear is background noise and interference which makes it impossible to watch
-our personal safe malfuncioned twice and locked us out of it. Once 20 minutes before we were leaving
-fruit is left in the room at turn-down - a peach that I cut into that was rotten and a pear with blemishes all over it. And apples. Its Mexico, not Washington state. I dont want what I can get at home. And the quality is not acceptable
-a rainstorm one night and when I went to the toilet in the morning there was water all over our bathroom. I just used towels to soak it up myself because I was tired of calling concierge to have things taken care of

When you are in such a small resort, your room is important because there is little else to do here. So these problems definitely detracted from our stay. Its an escape that you cant really escape from either. You cant walk anywhere except down the beach during the day or the 100 yards within the resort itself. Relaxation is probably what most people would come here for. And a resort that allows infants and toddlers, that feeling is completely neutralized. Im sorry but if you are this small and there's no way of having some seclusion, there's little reason the resort shouldnt be adults only. Its only 29 rooms. If relaxation is the "Essence" of what you stand for, you've missed the mark. I was far from at ease a lot of my stay here. For as many times as I needed to pick up the phone to have something taken care of, you would think that something would be suggested by management as a token for our troubles on our "Relaxing" vacation......